38 



except that for part of them the shore, for the rest the interior 

 of the island is given as the habitat and even these statements are 

 sometimes liable to suspicion. Treub whose doubtless extraordinary 

 merits lie neither in the domain of oecology nor in that of phyto- 

 geography has worked here in a field where he was no expert. There- 

 fore he did not conduct the investigations regarding the new flora 

 in a scientific way so as to lay a base for all subsequent researches. 

 This however has largely to be ascribed to the very unfavourable 

 circumstances under which he worked. 



On the beach Treub found a number of fruits and seeds which 

 were not collected or at least have not been preserved. According 

 to his paper they belonged to the following species: 



1. Heritlera littoralis Dryand. (1 specimen). 



A tree which is rather common in Java especially in the older, 

 less saline parts of tidal forests on clayey soils 1 ), and the localities 

 behind, but which sometimes is found growing immediately behind 

 the flood-mark. The reproduction takes place exclusively by fruits 2 ) 

 which are rather often washed ashore. But only where the locality is 

 humid, young plants develop; elsewhere either the seeds do not ger- 

 minate or the seedlings soon perish y ). Plants of Heritiera have, to 

 my knowledge, not yet been found on Krakatao 



') One should well distinguish tidal forests on clayey soil from those on coral- 

 reefs. The latter are. on the whole, poorer in species but possess some plants (remphis 

 dddu/a, Rhizophora stylosa) which do not occur on clay, whilst in tidal forests on 

 coral-reefs Sonneratia acida, Rhizophora mucronata, Finlaysonio maritime and 

 Acrostichum aureum are always lacking, - Rhizophora con/ugata is found as well 

 on a clayey soil as on coral-reefs | Cf. also S c h i m p e r, Indo-Malayische Strandflora 

 (1891), p. 185 seq ! On humid sandy beaches rich in shells (as near Maroonda, East 

 of Tandiong Priok) mangrove- plants may occur which, for the rest, are only found 

 on coral-reefs- It is perhaps not superfluous to observe here that in the latest 25 

 years in several localities in ]ava the composition of mangrove-forests has been 

 greatly modified by the reckless cutting out by the natives of species of economic 

 value (piles, timber, firewood, tanning bark)- Almost everywhere in the neighbourhood 

 of large settlements where the Forestry Service has not been able to intervene, only 

 the species of little or no economic value are left*)- And not only in the tidal 

 forests but almost everywhere in the lower and middle regions of |ava intact primeval 

 forests have become exceedingly rare. What by the non-expert is taken for primeval 

 forest is, as a rule, old secondary forest. 



2 ) Described by Boerlage in Ann. |ard. Bot. Buitenzorg Suppl. II (1898), p. 137; 

 Schimper, Indo-Malayische Strandflora (1891). pp. 16/p en 184, tab. VII fig. 2 and 

 M assart, Un Botaniste en Malaisie (1895), p. 298 (150). 



3 ) Cf. also Schimper, Indo-malayische Strandflora (1891), }>. 162: ,,Keimlinge 

 von Heritiera findet man" (on the sandy beach of I jilatjap) ,,im Verhaltniss zu 

 der enonnen Mcnge der angeschwemmten Friichte wenig". 



"*) Laudable exceptions to this rule may be met with near fisher-villages, where 

 species of Rhizophora are /often planted by the natives who use the bark for tanning 

 their nets, the wood for fuel and other purposes. Cf- H e y n e, De nuttige planten van 

 Nederlandsch-lndie (Useful plants of the Dutch Indies), 2' druk, II (1927), pp. 1162 S eq. 



